Humanitarian Speed Dating successfully happened at the Athenaeum on a sleety Wednesday night. More than a hundred people came. They’d been told to expect to be blown away, but chances are no one was fully prepared for the enthusiasm and the wide-ranging projects of the thirteen social entrepreneurs who laid out their work in four minutes each. The folks who attended agreed the evening was fun and funny, profound and pride-instilling. But was it important?
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Humanitarian Speed Dating successfully took place at the Athenaeum on a sleety Wednesday night. More than a hundred people braved the elements to see a side of Indianapolis they had perhaps not clearly imagined. They’d been told to expect to be blown away, but chances are no one was fully prepared for the enthusiasm and the wide-ranging projects of the thirteen social entrepreneurs who laid out their work in four minutes each. The folks who attended agreed the evening was fun and funny, profound and pride-instilling.
Even if Provocate wasn’t part of putting the event on, there’s little doubt that Humanitarian Speed Dating at the Athenaeum January 25 would be our pick of the week. It doesn’t get much cooler than …
Thanks to the Bluevine Collective for letting us reprint an article by Friend of Provocate Kelly Campbell, herself an important part of the redefinition of Indy as humanitarian hub.
Humanitarian Speed Dating — January 25
Fifteen of Indy’s most innovative social entrepreneurs will get together at the Athenaeum to tell us what they are doing, why it’s important, and how we can help them change …
Provocate’s Pick of the Week
“The Tragedy: Lessons learned from leadership that began with great promise and ended in great evil — The case of Jim Jones and the People’s Temple in Indianapolis”
what’s happening at the …
Every day brings new stories of parties and celebrations connected to Super Bowl XLVI. We here at Provocate aren’t really interested in parties intended only for pretty and rich people who are coming to Indy from out of town. It’s not like we get invited to those parties anyhow. But parties intended for Indy folks to celebrate the Super Bowl coming to us, well that’s another story. And if the eyes of the world are turning to Indy, why not show the world how Indy is going global? That means joining Big Car and buddies for World Party — III nights of international celebration at the Service Center. See just how international the city is becoming.
As part of its Faith and Vocation series, Butler will host two of the world’s leading experts on Christianity in China: Fenggang Yang of Purdue and Lian Xi of Hanover College. Profs. Yang and Xi …
More events are being planned for Dr Martin Luther King Jr Day than any one person can consume. Even though the laws of time and space prevent you from attending all of the events, you …
This spring seems to overflow with archaeological discussions … but not many of them seem to be about prehistory. Most of us assume archaeology is the study of old human stuff: prehistoric societies and the material things they left behind. Not necessarily tomb-robbing, but a more mundane, less cinematic, more humble cousin to the tomb-robbing of Indiana Jones. At the same time, discussions this spring will argue that what may be the most urgent issues facing current policymakers hinges on million year old ice. What is happening?
There’s a buzz about biking around Indy these days. Multiplying bike lanes are colonizing sections of street previously monopolized by cars. Wealthy and powerful figures in the city are joining forces with progressives and Greens to push an ambitious system of public transit that will rely heavily on two-wheelers. Quietly Indianapolis has emerged as one of the world’s capitals of competitive cycling. What’s all this biking talk about?
Friend and frequent partner of Provocate Kelly Campbell reflects on The Village Exsperience’s Haitian ventures. Although TVE’s first trip to Haiti was this past May, Kelly had spent years been preparing for the experience. In addition to being one of the top socially responsible tourism companies in the US, TVE’s work with microfinance projects in Thailand, community development initiatives in Uganda, and internally displaced persons camps in Kenya has eased the way to immediately productive partnerships with Haitian groups such as Fonkoze, Camp Adokin, and the Association of Peasants of Fondwa.
One of the best way to learn about foreign relations is the Great Decisions series. The Tuesday night ICWA local Great Decisions program explores the issues through discussions led by informed speakers. As always they have recruited an excellent roster of experts: some figures who’ll be familiar to anyone who has attended past GD programs, some new experts with sterling credentials, and a couple of newcomers.
Go to www.indytalks.info to read about the 2012 IndyTalks schedule. The grassroots, citywide collaboration known as IndyTalks will continue its mission to foster a sense of community through respectful and creative civic dialogue for third straight year. The 2012 IndyTalks series will explore the concept of “Indy at the Crossroads,” bringing together numerous cultural organizations as well as the general public.
… and it’s bringing a website, an Indiana global water directory, and a world water discussion forum. Of course you should attend the Summit. But check out the website at www.indianaglobalwater.org. Be there!
Amy King of Provocate—Haiti is a true believer in socially responsible tourism as a means of econonomic development for poor countries such as Haiti. (Read her views here.) As she helps many groups in Indiana …
Wednesday, November 16 at the Athenaeum … people in Indy may be talking about that evening for a very long time. About 80 people came together to discuss whether and how Indianapolis could define itself …
Learn more about the heart of a special partnership between Indy and Guatemala. Art will be on display and available for purchase by the kids enrolled in La Esquela de Arte in Magdalena, Guatemala Artwork will be on display by the school’s teachers, Carlos & Thelma Lopez Other work will be featured including The Baking School and NEW Sustainable Stove Project.
John Clark
Provocate is all about connecting. Connecting events, organizations & initiatives. Connecting local & global, education & entertainment, culture & policy.
Mid North Shepherd Center Great Decisions series: The securitization of cyberspace has caused a sea change for both governments and the private sector, faced with new threats, new battlegrounds and new opportunities. Faced with challenges such as international cybercrime and authoritarian control of networks, how will the U.S. and its democratic allies approach the cyber frontier? How does this new domain figure in U.S. strategic interests?
Steven Waldman — journalist, author, media consultant — discusses the spiritual lives of the Founding Fathers.
Join 1,500 from over 30 multi-faith congregations to meet with Mayor Ballard, Council President Lewis, and Public Safety Director Dr. Straub to launch a campaign to link good jobs to those hit hardest by the economic downturn & reduce violence by half next year.
An interactive workshop, led by PsyD Candidates from U Indy with the director of Legacy House. Part of GHSIG’s V-day, a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls.
RFK Remembered is a two-act multimedia show. It is a one-actor show based on the political life of the late Robert F. Kennedy. The show features video segues that set up historical events in RFK’s early career on through the explosive period of the 1960s. RFK Remembered is Robert Kennedy’s own words compiled from interviews, autobiographies and speeches. The show features local actor Kevin Carr, who researched and produced it.
Professor Fred DiCamilla of IUPUI’s English Department. Political leaders frame the place of the US in the world through their use of myth and metaphor. Of special interest is the question of the extent to which the cognitive process of forming conceptual metaphors that underlie the metaphorical language used to talk about the US and its role in the world is inherently cultural. Of further interest is the question of what may be entailed by certain conceptual metaphors with respect to the formation and implementation of foreign policy.
Jhumpa Lahiri portrays better than almost any other novelist the situation of immigrants in 21st century America.
This Central Indiana Bicycling Association program, “Bike Vietnam 2011,” will feature John Hay, a Bike Vietnam 2011 team member who pedaled over 600 miles through Vietnam to raise support for local education and development efforts. Along with fascinating images of Asian countryside and city scapes, Hay will share stories describing his encounters with the Vietnamese people and culture.
Ten years after September 11, 2001, the U.S. is winding down its military commitment in Iraq and slowly pulling out of Afghanistan. What exit strategy will help Afghanistan and Iraq build stable democratic nations? How can the U.S. continue to achieve its counterterrorism goals? What is the role of the U.S. in the future of the Middle East?
Peace and women’s rights activist Leymah Gbowee was a joint recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. Ms. Gbowee, founder of the Liberian Mass Action for Peace played a leading role in ending Liberia’s Second Civil WarShe is the executive director of the NGO Women Peace and Security in Africa (WIPSEN-Africa), and heads the newly established reconciliation process in her native Liberia.
